Mayo pilgrimage scales its peak with All-Ireland win over Kerry
HEADS YOU WIN: Emotions run high as Mayo’s Kobe McDonald and Jordan Flynn celebrate after winning the All-Ireland SFC final yesterday at Croke Park. Pic: Tom Maher/Inpho
Champions for a new age of football. Champions for so many lifetimes.
On Reek Sunday, Mayo scaled their greatest peak. On this day, in this year when one of the old warriors Pádraig O’Hora conquered Mount Everest, it felt entirely appropriate.
So often, Mayo had fallen just short of the summit that it felt insurmountable for many of their followers. Sympathy for them outside their borders waned too.
Once again, all their hopes and fears of all the years met in Croke Park. And this pilgrimage felt like it was going to be a faltering one. After falling twice on this particular climb, stumbles which no team had ever recovered from to reach the top, it was deemed they would be the fall guys again. We all thought so. They didn’t.
Ryan O’Donoghue’s demented determination to make this day the day provided the harness. He electrified his team. Kobe McDonald sprinkled some of his magic on proceedings too but overall Kerry’s “can do” philosophy was stolen from them.
Mayo beat more than 15 men here. In those closing stages, an otherwise fantastic support fell silent thinking they remained in this vicious cycle of coming up short.
But this group obliterated the old inevitable and made a new one. Sure, history seemed to be tugging them back near the close when a five-point advantage was narrowed to two and David Clifford and Seán O’Shea twice had chances to level it. But both chances were missed and Tommy Conroy put the game well and truly out of a hiccupping Kerry’s reach.
Mayo were brilliant. To beat the baggage, even to beat an out-of-sorts Kerry team, they had to be. Their energy was infectious and O’Donoghue – it’s worth repeating – was a whirlwind of activity.
Soon after a Gavin White pass intended for Graham O’Sullivan, Mayo struck their 40th minute goal, Kerry’s first concession since the opening round of the All-Ireland SFC against Donegal. Darragh Beirne’s finish was cultivated by O’Donoghue’s driving run. After a Keith Evans point, Jack Carney pumped over a second two-pointer and Mayo were five to the good.
They could have been out of sight but for a series of wides, several from two-point range. In the meantime, Kerry ate into their deficit and twice brought it back to a single point.
Another Mayo’s purple patch of four points came between the 58th and 62nd minutes including O’Donoghue’s second two-pointer. And still it didn’t feel enough. Not for Mayo and their weight. After Jordan Flynn saw a snap chance come back off the crossbar, David Clifford converted Kerry’s only two-pointer and Paudie Clifford put over his third single score. But prevailed Mayo did.
Kerry once more played within themselves and were punished for it. Jack O’Connor will be criticised for again mentioning the lack of a proper pre-season because of players’ extensive club commitments, but he was preaching that point when Kerry were winning. His thoughts on the divisional championships will have to be considered.
Mayo’s high press put such a tax on the Kerry inside backs. Paul Murphy was often isolated and while he rarely lost the ball it slowed up Kerry’s build-up play considerably.
O’Connor broke the habit of a lifetime in making late change as much as it was enforced. Diarmuid O’Connor was removed from the panel, Cillian Trant was called up from the auxiliary list and O’Connor’s starting berth given to Tom O’Sullivan.
A Mayo change was anticipated – Paul Towey for Conor Loftus as was the case for their quarter-final and semi-final wins – but not two. Stephen Coen was also forced out with injury and Diarmuid O’Connor came into the team and John McMonagle into the 26.
For the first 16 minutes, Mayo mustered just one point in which time they fell seven behind. Kerry didn’t score a two-pointer despite the benefit of the wind but still had 1-5 on the board.
Kerry were enjoying how much time Jack Livingstone was taking with his kick-outs. They were also happy to break the ball in front of them where Mayo weren’t committing enough bodies.
David Clifford had two points to his name inside the first six minutes after Seán O’Brien had earlier trailed a goal attempt wide in the fifth minute. But after O’Shea opened his account, he found Clifford who made a backdoor cut, moved away from Livingstone and bulged the net.
Another O’Shea point stretched the difference to seven before Carney began the recovery with a two-pointer. Mayo kicked five short in the first half but the work ethic of their attack without the ball was immense and gave them a platform.
After O’Shea’s total jumped to three with a fisted score when David Clifford squared the ball to him, O’Donoghue raised another orange flag. Following that were Darragh Beirne and O’Donoghue frees as Mayo’s inside backs came under pressure. Sam Callinan broke through to make it a one-point game in the 30th minute.
After hitting two wides, Tom O’Sullivan made it third time lucky seconds later to end Mayo’s run of five points without response. Another foul on O’Donoghue was punished by Beirne before HawkEye confirmed Conroy’s effort was good and true.
As David Clifford fell the effects of an O’Donoghue challenge, Joe O’Connor burrowed his way through to slot over the score that separated the teams at the break, 1-8 to 0-10.
Andy Moran was happy with that deficit after facing the wind. “We were very confident, not in anything in terms of winning or losing, but in the work that we'd done. We thought we had a lot of work done, that we were doing an awful lot right in that first half, we finished really strong.
“You know, a tiny bit sloppy around our breaking ball and stuff like that, our positions, and (we said to them) just to play with tempo because we thought when we played with pace we were really hurting them. And that was it, that was half-time, out we went and away we went.”
Away they did. Up a reek and down a mountain.
D. Beirne (1-3, 2 frees); R. O’Donoghue (0-5, 2 tps, 1 free); J. Carney (0-4, 2 tps); K. McDonald (0-3, 1 45); T. Conroy (0-2); D. McBrien, S. Callinan, J. Flynn (0-1 each).
D. Clifford (1-6, 1 tp); S. O’Shea, P. Clifford (1 45) (0-3 each); D. Casey, T. O’Sullivan, J. O’Connor, K. Evans, G. O’Sullivan (0-1 each).
J. Livingstone; J. Coyne (c), E. McGreal, D. McHugh; S. Callinan, E. Hession, D. McBrien; B. Tuohy, J. Carney; D. O’Connor, J. Flynn, P. Towey; D. Beirne, D. Beirne, R. O’Donoghue, K. McDonald.
T. Conroy for P. Towey (25); M. Ruane for B. Tuohy, R. Brickenden for E. McGreal (both 53); C. Loftus for D. O’Connor (58); P. Durcan for S. Callinan (65).
S. Murphy; D. Casey, J. Foley, P. Murphy; T. O’Sullivan, M. Breen, G. White; M. O’Shea, S. O’Brien; J. O’Connor, S. O’Shea, G. O’Sullivan; D. Clifford (c), P. Clifford, D. Geaney.
E. Looney for D. Casey (temp, 29-ht); K. Evans for T. O’Sullivan (h-t); T. Kennedy for D. Geaney (52); B. Ó Beaglaoich for G. White (59); E. Looney for P. Murphy (61); M. Burns for S. O’Brien (63).
M. McNally (Monaghan)
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